President Ramaphosa Must Please Explain His Somersault on Judge Khampepe

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s claim that he erroneously appointed Judge Sisi Khampepe to lead an important commission… because he didn’t realise, she was conflicted… because he did not know her work history, though it’s been published on a government website for years, requires further scrutiny.

The President made this claim in support of a High Court application by his predecessors, former Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, for the recusal of Judge Khampepe.

The Judge is leading the commission probing the reasons for the non-prosecution of cases recommended for prosecution by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and whether this was a consequence of political interference.

It is important for the country not only to understand if there was political interference, which the evidence of former prosecutors to Judge Khampepe has already all but confirmed, but also whether the interference was lawful, and why it was deemed necessary.

The cases that the TRC recommended for prosecution involved perpetrators who either chose not to apply for amnesty or whose amnesty applications did not qualify. South Africans need to know why the State appeared to believe a second “general amnesty” was required.

The implications of what appears to have been a non-prosecution policy or decree include hundreds of families being left without closure, a national unity and reconciliation process left dangling, incomplete, and politicians acting with impunity because they know they are more powerful than the law.

If the evidence of former prosecutors is true, the NPA was “captured” long before the so-called era of state capture. By joining his predecessors in the lawfare trenches, President Ramaphosa appears to be following their lead in placing the interests of the ANC above those of the country.